Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Prairie View, Kansas, May 31, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Phillips County on May 31, 2007, touching down at 3:10 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 31, 2007
Touchdown
3:10 PM CDT (20:10 UTC)
Lifted
3:12 PM CDT (20:12 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Phillips County
Touchdown point
39.830, -99.589
Lift-off point
39.830, -99.589
Record number
0705311410-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms blasted through north-central Kansas. These storms produced hail, strong winds, and a brief tornado. Hail up to golf ball and baseball in size was driven by winds of 60 to 70 mph. The worst damage was reported around the Smith Center area. A couple of outbuildings were destroyed in Smith Center and siding was damaged by the wind driven hail. North of town, crops were strip or mowed down by the hail.

A tornado briefly sat down west of Prairie View in western Phillips County. A photograph of the twister was published in the Phillips County Review newspaper. It was also featured on CNN news. This tornado caused no damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:50 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:05 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:00 UTC08:44 UTCFlash Flood WatchGID
18:05 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WatchGID
19:50 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningGID
20:29 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningGID

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

8.2 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. May 31, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2007-05-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -111949, lifted condensation level 1128 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2007-05-31The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-111949 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1128 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

3.8 hours after it, 168 km from the path. June 1, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2007-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 259 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 969 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2007-06-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
259 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
890 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
969 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Phillipsburg (PHG), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:53 UTC7650180° 18 kt231012.5
19:53 UTC7551200° 19 kt281011.5
20:53 UTC7853190° 21 kt271010.8
21:53 UTC605040° 11 kt231011.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:11 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:30 UTCHAIL 15 Nw NortonNorton, KS
19:48 UTCTSTM WND GST 60NortonNorton, KS
19:50 UTCHAIL 12 N CalvertNorton, KSHAIL COVERING THE GROUND
20:06 UTCTSTM WND GST 60NortonNorton, KS
20:07 UTCHAIL 1.751 W Prairie ViewPhillips, KS
20:20 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 W PhillipsburgPhillips, KS
20:20 UTCHAIL 1.751 W WoodruffPhillips, KS40 TO 50 MPH WINDS ALSO REPORTED
20:23 UTCHAIL 17 N PhillipsburgPhillips, KS
20:30 UTCHAIL 0.888 Ne PhillipsburgPhillips, KSNICKEL SIZE HAIL IS COVERING THE GROUND. HAS BEEN HAILING FOR TEN MINUTES.
20:45 UTCHAIL 1.75AgraPhillips, KSQUARTER TO GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL
20:57 UTCHAIL 1.753 Ne KensingtonSmith, KSCOPIOUS AMOUNTS OF QUARTER TO GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL. HAIL PILED INTO DRIFTS AND TREES STRIPPED OF LEAVES.
21:13 UTCHAIL 0.7511 Nw Smith CenterSmith, KS
21:48 UTCHAIL 0.882 E JenningsDecatur, KS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in KansasEvery tornado in Kansas since 1950Warnings in force in Kansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 31, 2007

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 316:55 PM CDTEF0Cimarron, OK0.1100
May 317:11 PM CDTEF0Cimarron, OK0.3100
May 317:42 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK0.150
May 317:49 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK0.175
May 317:58 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK0.5150
May 318:06 PM CDTEF1Texas, OK5.3300$18,000
May 318:18 PM CDTEF0Hale, TX0.550
May 318:24 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK0.175
May 318:25 PM CDTEF0Rush, KS0.530
May 318:27 PM CDTEF0Floyd, TX0.350

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.